Thursday, January 24, 2008

Scifi.com picks up an AP wire revealing the next Bond film title will be Quantum of Solace.

Quantum

of

Solace

Wha! That can't be right. Quantum of Solace sounds like the working title either Solaris or The Fountain was shot under until someone with a sense of audience sent it back for a rewrite. Quantum of Solace sounds like it doesn't really stand alone, but rather should following somethin glike Harry Potter and the, or The Chronicles of Narnia:, or The Golden Compass II:.

It does not say James Bond.

Yes, I understand the film is supposed to be a direct followup to Casino Royale and, like that movie's slightly deeper or more honest portrayal of Bond (where even Bond realizes at some point killing people with your bare hands is a bit messed up) will obviously have to deal with some matter of remorse and drive for revenge following the death of Vesper Lynd; but it just doesn't strike me as the title of a Bond film.

Ah, crap. Turns out "Quantum of Solace" is indeed a title in the Fleming fiction oeuvre, actually appearing in the short story collection For Your Eyes Only. So much for illiterate knee-jerk reactions. "Quantum of Solace" has indeed said James Bond, from the creator's pen no less.

OK, given that the story "Quantum of Solace" is apparently the most un-Bond of Fleming's Bond work (according to the wikipedia article Bond learns the lesson that "Bond's adventures pale in comparison with real life drama"), and the reinvention of Bond marked with Casino Royale, I have a little bit more faith in the studio to crank out another solid flick.

Now I'll deflecting my embarrassment to anger at SciFi. After all, it has been a while since SciFi.com's been our whipping boy. I dunno. It just seems to me that SciFi's "SciFi Wire" should supplement whatever they pull from the AP with a little fanboy explication. Yes, the most erudite Bond fan will know where the title comes from, but give us slightly more casual Bond fans a bit of a clue too! What's the point having such a "specialized" news channel if it doesn't give us any deeper insight than what's provided by the mainstream press? SciFi.com makes me sad, again.Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage Mode: Off.